The Mao Case: An Inspector Chen Novel (Inspector Chen Cao Book 6)

Chief Inspector Chen investigates the possibility that artifacts remaining from Mao's sordid private life with a lovely movie star--Shang--could surface and embarrass Beijing. He focuses on the tragic lives of Shang, a suicide; her daughter Qian, also dying young; and her granddaughter Jiao, implicated in this plot to profit from exposing Mao's dalliance. Poetic language for sex, including "cloud and rain," "silk stockings soaked with dewdrops," and "plum blossom," contrast in Chen's mind with with Mao's harsh imperial rule, "surrounded by the enemy I stand firm and invincible," "the master controlling...", and "a hurricane comes." The story, steeped in melancholy, weighed down by details of Mao's relentless command and emotional brutality, ends realistically with "the sun sinking inblood."Qiu Xiaolong expresses a Chinese sensibility in Chen, looking for the blank space in a scroll as well as the landscape. His task here is politically dangerous on all sides. His quest exposes the personal tragedies of Mao's Cultural Revolution and the current gulf between rich and poor in Shanghai, both revealing individual agonies invisible to those ruling inside the Forbidden City. The idealistic poet inside himself becomes a supportive character to his primary cop character, his assigned social duty. He tries to succeed for the Party and himself, which means he abandons his love for high-born Ling. The old men he deals with, the rich friends, the poor police couple, the nostalgic party-goers, the delicate and beautiful young artists, all try to form a life on the wrecked remnants of lives Mao has left them.I loved the history so thoughtfully knit throughout the book, personal stories new to me. I loved the haunted, fated future of the dancer and those coming after. I enjoyed the villain, a variation on the theme of the story, the impact of Mao on one person. I appreciated the women in bright colors, the indomitable old men, Ling's insight, and Chen's eccentric detection. The conversation between Ling and Chen irritated me--can't these two smart people break through Chinese restraint, embrace and explore love without political overtones? Are they condemned to solitary longing, which makes great poems but poor lives and bad love scenes? With Shanghai moving forward, all these characters need to make some contemporary progress as well.

I have now read in order Xiaolong's entire Detective Chen series. THE MAO CASE may be the series best since the first book, DEATH OF A RED HEROINE which still remains for me the series best. My complaint with the series as it has progressed is that the characters personal lives have not grown. Chen's character has developed to a degree but he still seems frozen in time and in his position as the poetry loving police inspector who has put career over his personal life. The various cases or story lines in each volume seem to take president over the on going development of each character. I for one don't read the books because of the particular case or to find out who done it, but for the setting (China in the 1990s as it turns to capitalism) and characters response to these changes. I thing one handicap is that Xiaolong is only a serviceable writer. His paragraph's and dialog are simple, short and without much descriptive or visual depth. He services the plot more than he is able to embellish it. One often asks if he is just going through the motions now? In the MAO CASE we do see some improvement and get some interesting insights into the Cultural Revolution and it's on going impact on the Chinese population and politics of the 90s as well as some personal information on Chairman Mao. This gets this volume some depth and interest that the first book had. This volume also allows us to enjoy having some of the other major characters involved in the case in some inventive ways although I can not say they have progressed very far in their lives. So overall this is a fast fun read which I recognize it's not great literature and may also be an acquired taste. I personally will continue to look forward to the next Chen book. I have mentioned in my prior reviews of the Chen series that my tastes as a reader are not for mysteries and that this is the only series I have read.

As with all Inspector Chen novels, the plot is only there to take the reader on a tour of post cultural revolution China. Showing us less the geography but political and personal landscape. This story is all about the position Mao, the reality and the myth, still occupies in China.The plot is probably one of the weakest in the series. The dialog is still a little formal - as though the Chinese characters really are speaking English, and as a second language; the characters beside Chen a little under developed; and the solving of the case comes about almost by accident.The book as a whole though is one of his best. The China the author shows is insightful and intriguing.And in spite of some weaknesses, I still do love Qiu Xiaolong's telling of the story. Inspector Chen's inner angst, his poetry, his integrity, occasional ethical compromise (though in this book his dealings with his Triad connection is down-played), his striving for understanding and of course justice, makes him for me as much a detective hero as any more macho western anti-hero characters.

Perhaps interest in this plot would be limited to students of Mao’s legacy, and how the personal and political must converge yo provide an understanding of how super hero’s are also very human. The plot skillfully explicates how we are all a product of our times, and how even a cultural revolution cannot rent traditions to suddenly become the aspirations of revolution. Mao was only a man, and that is as far as he should be trusted.Fine character development among and between the ensemble cast across all levels of a class ridden society. Recommended reading to deepen an understanding of a complex post Mao China.

"The Mao Case" represents a return to form displayed in the earliest Insp. Chen novels with their combination of generic crime fiction and their particular brand of modern chinese social issues,poetry and food obsessions. Here the long term ramifications of the cultural revolution in post- Mao society and the pressures of a party trying to ride the tide of modern capitalism while hoping that the selected benefits will disuade chinese of the need for more real freedoms,not just the choices availabvle to the noveaux riches("Big Bucks") and the turmoil practical and moral that engulfs Chen as he tries to pick his way through the pitfalls of party requirements set against criminal procedures and an attempt to mitigate the extent of his own moral compromises. A relatively simple plot line pursued by Chen and various non-official helpers,mostly familiar characters,investigate tragedies for three (or 4) women across the period 1965-to date.A very satisfying read which avoids having chinese characters telling western readers what they might not know about China's recent past, a growing fault in last novel especially...which tended to make them unconvincing figures but mere mouth pieces. Pace and sublety are both here again.

Once you get accustomed to the style the story evolves becoming increasingly engaging, presenting very human and balanced characters. Characterisation and scene setting is well developed without becoming overpowering and giving the impression of an academic exercise. Whether the combination of poet and detective is a likely combination, the reader is certainly left with the conviction that it is entirely realistic. Plot development is intricate with various twists and turns and does not rise beyond what is entirely possible - leaving the reader with certain question marks, proving that it is not always correct for a writer to resolve the novel in a Hollywood style - life is just not like that. My only technical question over the Kindle edition is that, like some others, it does not have chapter bookmarks - so one finds oneself continually adding bookmarks at the outset of chapters.

Detective stories come in many forms. Some are strong on humour. Some, perhaps especially American, are graphic in their portrayal of criminal methods and violence. Some writers, as Camilla Lackberg, seem to be writing family stories. The British tradition, a century old but exemplified more recently in the Inspector Morse novels of Colin Dexter, is the who-done-it. This is the plan followed by Qiu Xiaolong. The crime is described, the body is found, and we are involved in the search for clues that will identify the culprit. This turns out to be true even of The Mao Case, which begins with the search for unidentifed and rather mysterious items which antecedents of people now living may have obtained from Mao before his death, but ends with the identification of the author of two murders.However Qiu Xiaolong is distinguished also by his descriptions of life in China: the physical descriptions of the difficulties in living space, the effects on different characters by their experiences in the Cultural Revolution and also its aftermath as those who were important in one era felt abandoned in another, and the developing class system. These matters could become boring and irrelevant if they were not , as in this book, an essential part of a story where the detective must struggle with the complexities of the class system in which the high cadres live in a world apart, and the detective in addition to relying on help from his team, also needs a contact in high circles in Beijing and a supporter in the Triads.Finally we accept the detective Chen as an honest, intelligent man doing his best in difficult ciircumstances. Cultured too. Morse plays classical music. Chen recites Chinese poetry.

I have read all the Inpector Chen novels with their fascinating mixture of a good plot intertwined with an insight into modern China, cooking and poetry.I agree with L.M. Stewart that you need to have read at least some of the others to appreciate The Mao Case. Also his style is now much more western and less quirky.I thoroughly enjoyed the book, with two qualifications; it seems short compared with the others (? just his now easier writing style) but also I found the ending disappointing...without giving the plot away, perhaps Jiao and her mother could have had something more in common with Lara in Dr. Zhivago.

I have enjoyed other books by Qiu Xiaolong but I found this one heavy going. There did not seem to be much point to the plot and the ending was a let down. Altogether there was too much political stuff which did not add, in my opinion, to the story.